WASHINGTON, D.C. – A former top aide to a Republican president and a left-wing senator have both blasted the White House for its response to the feud between Canada and Saudi Arabia, calling it weak and evidence of President Donald Trump’s affinity for autocrats.

In an article earlier this week, Elliott Abrams, who was deputy national security adviser to George W. Bush, said the Saudis’ aggressive response to human rights criticism from Canada was “an unforced error,” and the lack of U.S. back-up for the Canadians indefensible.

From the other side of the political spectrum, Sen. Bernie Sanders told the National Post Trump himself should have defended Canada and echoed its criticism of the Saudis.

The States’ strategic alliance with the Arab power is no reason to go easy on its human rights transgressions, he said.

“What the United States government should have done is joined Canada in telling Saudi Arabia that it is not acceptable in a country that has received huge amounts of support and military arms from the United States to be imprisoning human rights activists,” he said in an interview.

“We have a president who time and time again seems to be more comfortable with authoritarian-type governments than with democracies,” Sanders said. “And I think that is a very sad state of affairs.”

The diplomatic clash started when first Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, then Global Affairs Canada issued tweets criticizing Saudi Arabia for jailing rights activist Samar Badawi and others. Badawi’s brother Raif was earlier sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in prison for running the website “Free Saudi Liberals.” His wife and children live in Canada and recently became citizens.

In response, the Saudis threw out Canada’s ambassador, ordered a halt to further trade and called back thousands of students and medical patients from Canada.

The Canadians violated “basic international norms” by meddling in Saudi Arabia’s internal affairs, its government said.

Trump, who made his first foreign trip as president to Riyadh, has not made any comment on the affair. He has touted the Saudis as an important ally in opposing Iran and fighting extremism, and a lucrative trading partner. He has also praised Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de-facto leader, for the liberal reforms he has spearheaded.

The U.S. State Department said it has asked the Saudis about the situation with Canada, and encouraged it to respect due process and be transparent about the fate of people taken into custody. But it has not publicly criticized the arrest of the activists, nor the aggressive response to Canada.

The European Union has taken a similarly neutral stance.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House on March 14, 2017.Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Abrams, who now heads the Council on Foreign Relations, dismissed the Saudis’ contention that other nations have no right to criticize its domestic affairs.

“That’s an untenable position in 2018,” he said, noting that even the Soviet Union reacted relatively mildly when then-president Ronald Reagan called it an “evil empire.”

And the initial State Department response to the affair was “indefensibly weak,” Abrams wrote. It ought to have stated that no country should suffer when it voices support for human rights, especially involving the family of its citizens, he said.

“That would have been a mild brush-back of the Saudi overreaction, and would have been a useful suggestion to the Saudis that they were going too far,” said Abrams.

As for Sanders, it’s little surprise that one of the more left-leaning members of Congress would criticize Trump. But he has also been part of a bipartisan effort opposing Trump’s position on another controversial policy of the Saudi kingdom.

He and Republican Mike Lee co-sponsored a resolution — eventually defeated after heavy lobbying by the White House — that called on the administration to halt its support of the Saudis’ war in Yemen.

A State Department spokesman said Thursday the agency would not comment on Sanders’ remarks.